LITERATURE AND SCIENCE
It has been remarked as curious that the Age of Revolution at Geneva
was also the Golden Age--if not of Genevan literature, which has never
really had any Golden Age, at least of Genevan science, which was of
world-wide renown. The explanation probably is that these Genevan
revolutions, over which the Genevan historians have spilt such a
quantity of ink, were not such very important matters after all. So far
as one can make out, the graver of them were hardly more grave than the
Peterloo massacre, while the less grave hardly attain to the gravity of
the Bloody Sunday Riots. A man of letters who took part in one of them
on the losing side might suffer unpleasant consequences. He might have
his writings burnt by the common hangman, as Bérenger’s were; he might
be driven into exile, as were de Lolme, who went to London, where he
wrote his famous work on the British Constitution, and d’Ivernois, who
went to Paris and became one of the most pungent critics of republican
administration and finance. Such things might happen, and in many cases
did. But there were no such violent or such continual disturbances as
need take up the whole of a literary man’s time, or prevent him from
getting on with his work.
The period, at any rate, is one in which notable names meet us at
every turn. There were exiled Genevans, like de Lolme, holding their
own in foreign political and intellectual circles; there were emigrant
Genevan pastors holding aloft the lamps of culture and piety in many
cities of England, France, Russia, Germany, and Denmark; there were
Genevans, like François Lefort, holding the highest offices in the
service of foreign rulers; and there were numbers of Genevans at Geneva
of whom the cultivated grand tourist wrote in the tone of a disciple
writing of his master. One cannot glance at the history of the period
without lighting upon names of note in almost all departments of
endeavour. The period is that of de Saussure, Bourrit, the de Lucs,
the two Hubers, great authorities respectively on bees and birds; Le
Sage, who was one of Gibbon’s rivals for the heart of Mademoiselle
Suzanne Curchod; Senebier, the librarian who wrote the first literary
history of Geneva; St. Ours and Arlaud, the painters; Charles Bonnet,
the entomologist; Bérenger and Picot, the historians; Tronchin,
the physician; Trembley and Jallabert, the mathematicians; Dentan,
minister and Alpine explorer; Pictet, the editor of the _Bibliothèque
Universelle_, still the leading Swiss literary review; and Odier, who
taught Geneva the virtue of vaccination.
It is obviously impossible to dwell at length upon the careers of
all these eminent men. As well might one attempt, in a survey on the
same scale of English literature, to discuss in detail the careers of
all the celebrities of the age of Anne. One can do little more than
remark that the list is marvellously strong for a town of some 30,000
inhabitants, and that many of the names included in it are not only
eminent, but interesting. Jean André de Luc, for example, has a double
claim upon our attention as the inventor of the hygrometer and as the
pioneer of the snow-peaks. He climbed the Buet as early as 1770, and
wrote an account of his adventures on its summit and its slopes which
has the true charm of Arcadian simplicity. He came to England, was
appointed reader to Queen Charlotte, and lived in the enjoyment of that
office, and in the gratifying knowledge that Her Majesty kept his
presentation hygrometer in her private apartments, to the venerable age
of ninety.
Bourrit is another interesting character--being, in fact, the spiritual
ancestor of the modern Alpine Clubman. By profession he was Precentor
of the Cathedral; but his heart was in the mountains. In the summer
he climbed them, and in the winter he wrote books about them. One of
his books was translated into English; and the list of subscribers,
published with the translation, shows that the public which Bourrit
addressed included Edmund Burke, Sir Joseph Banks, Bartolozzi, Fanny
Burney, Angelica Kauffman, David Garrick, Sir Joshua Reynolds, George
Augustus Selwyn, Jonas Hanway, and Dr. Johnson. His writings earned
him the honourable title of Historian (or Historiographer) of the
Alps. Men of science wrote him letters; princes engaged upon the grand
tour called to see him; princesses sent him presents as tokens of
their admiration and regard for the man who had taught them how the
contemplation of mountain scenery might exalt the sentiments of the
human mind.
[Illustration: THE JURA RANGE FROM THONON, HTE. SAVOIE]
Tronchin, too, is interesting; he was the first physician who
recognized the therapeutic use of fresh air and exercise, hygienic
boots, and open windows. And so is Charles Bonnet, who was not afraid
to stand up for orthodoxy against Voltaire; and so is Mallet, who
travelled as far as Lapland. But space forbids any long examination
of their achievements. The most that one can do is to illustrate the
epoch by narrating the events of one career; and the career selected
must of necessity be that of the man of whom his contemporaries always
spoke, with the reverence of hero-worshippers, as ‘the illustrious de
Saussure.’